This study (a replication, validation, and extension of Community Alternative for the Treatment of Schizophrenia, NIMH grant #MH 20123 -Soteria I) is a long-term (2 year post-admission) comparative outcome study of schizophrenics. A new research site (Soteria II) has been established as well as two new patient populations (N equals 60 total) of young, first-break schizophrenics; one treated in a non-professionally staffed community residence, the second receiving "usual" treatment on the ward of a community mental health center. The philosophy at the community residence is one we term a "developmental crisis" orientation. The psychotic experience is viewed as a crisis requiring that the experience be taken seriously, and that the individual be allowed to experience in the context of a warm, empathetic, supportive, facilitative human relationship. Insomuch as possible, it is not quelled, repressed, or aborted with phenothiazines. The overall aim of this residence is to enhance the possibility that the psychosis will be integrated into the continuity of the individual's life, a state which has been shown to be associated with better longterm outcome. Data obtained at several points in time (admission, discharge, Day 3, Day 45, and 6,12,18, and 24 months post-admission) from a variety of points of view (independent psychiatric, house/ward staff, family and self reports), which assess outcome in terms of symptoms, overall level of psychosocial functioning, and internal change, is compared across groups. This data is subjected to analyses of variance and covariance for repeated measures over time. Short and longterm comparative costs are compared, and we identify subgroups of responders and nonresponders to the different milieu. Our specially trained non-professional staff is studied and compared to other mental health personnel. Their relationships and interactions with patients (therapeutic "process") is studied and correlated with outcome. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: Menn, A. "Growing at Sotemia". In: Jaffe, D. ed. In Search of a Therapy. New York: Harper Row, Inc. 1975. Mosher, L.R., Menn, A., Matthews, S. "Soteria: Evaluation of a Home-Based Treatment for Schizophrenia". In: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. 45(3): 455-467, 1975.